THE TIGHTENING NOOSE:

[C]hesebro's plea obligates him to turn over documents to the government as well as to testify. We don't know what might be in his emails and text messages or who he might he be able to offer additional evidence against. The possibilities include at least Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Jenna Ellis (who, with her publicly expressed grievance over paying her own legal fees, looks like she could be poised for a guilty plea of her own as the case moves forward). They're all candidates for Chesebro to cooperate against. In other words, it's not just about obtaining additional testimony against Trump, it's also about obtaining testimony to encourage defendants who are closer to Trump to plead guilty as well.

Chesebro wrote an entire series of memos in 2020 that acted as road maps for the fake slates of Trump electors in each state. He did that in Georgia, of course, but that wasn't the only state where the Trump campaign ran the fake electors ploy. Chesebro acknowledged in court that he "created and distributed false Electoral College documents" to Trump operatives in Georgia and other states, and that he worked "in coordination with" the Trump campaign (emphasis added). So, it's easy to see how his testimony could help not just Fani Willis, but Jack Smith too. "The defendant provided detailed instructions to co-conspirators in Georgia and other states," a prosecutor told the Judge on Friday when detailing Chesebro's conduct. Chesebro had to acknowledge that the prosecution's statement was correct as part of his colloquy with the Judge. Before accepting a guilty plea, the judge must ensure that a defendant understands what he's pleading guilty to and is doing so voluntarily. That means Chesebro can't walk back the "other states" part of what he knows about.

There's an additional advantage to obtaining guilty pleas from both Powell and Chesebro, and it's more bad news for Trump. There will be no early trial, no opportunity for other defendants to get a preview of Fani Willis' case. Willis is down from 19 defendants to 16 defendants, and she hasn't even struck a jury yet. Her consistent position has been that she wants to try all defendants together--Powell and Chesebro were only going apart from the others because they'd made speedy trial demands. Willis has a strong argument that the remaining defendants should be tried together, and lo and behold, both the Judge and Donald Trump have some empty time on their hands in the next few months before Jack Smith's case against Trump goes to trial in Washington, D.C., in March.

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